Hacking Anyone else giving up on Maxconsole?

[WarmWoollySheep]

Please note I am not speaking for Gbatemp, Wiili, dcemu or any other site. If you want to copy this post feel free.

I ignored people who said "Maxconsole is being paid off, they're lying!" I gave Maxconsole the benefit of the doubt for the last few weeks, I just thought they were being a bit sensationalist. But after today, when I saw their latest blatant advertisement disguised as news, I put it all together:

(keep in mind the Wiinja and Cyclowiz have announced nearly identical features, but the modchip "war" isn't what this is about. I don't care as I won't be buying either Wiinja, Cyclowiz, Wiikey or any other chip for a few more months. This is about Maxconsole and their yellow journalism.)

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#1 - Maxconsole was the first site to post news of the Cyclowiz.

http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=13934

Take note of their first sentence in the post,

"It seems that Wiinja is already outdated even before its release"

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#2 - A news item is posted bashing the Wiinja for not being "upgradeable"

http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=13918

Wiinja to die a short death? ... it is not upgradeable at all, so if the big N throw out some clever moves, the mod will be over as quick as a flash!

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#3 - The glowing review of the non-upgradeable Cyclowiz days before it's released:

http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=13974

Maxconsole doesn't even mention that the Cyclowiz isn't "upgradeable", not once, not even under "cons", while they panned the Wiinja just days earlier for the same thing.

Here are some choice quotes from the review:

"While it is clearly a must-have feature, it’s yet unknown, but unlikely, that wiinja offers this feature."

- Referring to gamecube audio streaming. Wiinja has confirmed that their chip will play GC audio as well - every chip will. There is no "gc audio" fix because there is no "gc audio" problem - the wii fixes that, not a drive chip. This is a feature dreamed up by Maxconsole to sell Cyclowiz.

"CycloWiz is a dream come true"

Unless you want to play games from Japan, run a homebrew operating system, etc. Must be a boring dream.

"We probably already have a winner in the Wii modchip competition that just started!"

Wow, a winner before you even try the other modchips? You are omniscient!

what are you waiting for? Pre-order CycloWiz at your local reseller before they are all gone!

Operators are standing by! Call now and receive this free neon calculator!


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Wiikey, an upgradeable chip from a respected company with good features is announced on every big site.

#4 - Watch how Maxconsole tries to play the Wiikey down, and take note of the use of their words like "rumor" and "claim", it's almost funny:

http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=14034

"A new mod has been announced known as the 'WiiKey' which is rumored to be made by the 'XenoGC' creators. Their website lists a number of features and claims it will be fully upgradable by DVD disc. Unfortunately they do not display a 'real' image of the mod and only a small picture which suggests it could be far away from production."

Maxconsole makes no mention that the ship date is February 7th, even though it's clearly listed at: http://www.wiikey.cn/
Instead, they lie to their readers by suggesting that the chip is "far away from production"

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#5 - The Wiikey news is quickly drowned by a flood of pointless news posts, including this gem for Cyclowiz:

http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=14042

Why no news about the Wiinja shipping? Why no news on the date the Wiikey ships?

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Conclusion: When reading a Maxconsole review for Wii chips, take them with a grain of salt - like you would an advertisement. While you're at it, do the same for their PS2, 360, and DS reviews as well, since you don't know who else has paid them off. All we know is that Maxconsole can be bought, and their price must be pretty low considering Team Cyclops could afford it.

 

[TheVirus]

I do like MC for their constant news spouts, but the bias is incredibly annoying. Ad companies should have ZERO influence on how a company operates, but it seems money reigns supreme over at MC. I'd read the news post and then read the replies to get the corrected info.

MC is going downhill fast.

 

[Takrin]

i did like maxconsole also for their news and posted there but somewhere along the way i just compleatly just goto gbatemp.net and super rarely goto mc

 

[[M]artin]

MaxConsole makes me cry... hard.

 

[Opium]

As you said, Maxconsole is horribly bias. It's a real pity that their ad content invades their journalistic integrity.

Their normal daily posts about random gaming things are all well and good though, I enjoy reading those. As long as I don't have to read through something that sounds like an advertorial like their Cyclowiz bullshit.

Maxconsole is paid by Divineo. And rumour has it that Divineo is the main distributor of Cyclowiz. I haven't heard it from the horse's mouth so I don't know if it's true, but recent events point to yes.

 

[thegame07]

the drama

looks like maxconsole reputation is going down the drain

 

[Pacote]

Great topic.. this remember me of Ps2nfo (ps3news now) when PSP got homebrews running...

its like the same thing all over again...

Oh btw, just posted this great timeline on the MC forums

 

[nloding]

Good points. Never been a MaxConsole person myself, but I have frequented their hardware repair sections. They've helped me with PSP and PS2 repair issues in the past. So oh well.

I have ... um ... 5 posts there, and now over 100 here. And I've been a member there three times as long as here. So who wins that?

 

[WarmWoollySheep]

Oh btw, just posted this great timeline on the MC forums

They must have deleted it already, I don't see it.

 

[[M]artin]

WarmWoollySheep, your name makes me feel good about life. It also makes me very sleepy.

 

[Pacote]

They deleted:

Your threads have been deleted. If you wish to be banned, just say so.

Thankyou

 

[[M]artin]

They deleted:

Your threads have been deleted. If you wish to be banned, just say so.

Thankyou

MaxConsole is full of nubblets...

 

[nloding]

They deleted:

Your threads have been deleted. If you wish to be banned, just say so.

Thankyou

LOL, nice.

 

[Veho]

the drama

looks like maxconsole reputation is going down the drain

It would be going down the drain if they ever had a good reputation to begin with...

You can't be objective in their line of business. If you want to be objective and can't favour the best paying company, you won't recieve free/prerelease items, you won't have exclusive reviews or interviews, and you'll lose readers to another site that is willing to tweak their review in exchange for having products to review (favourably, of course) before the rest.

I guess the Wiinja team didn't pay them enough. [irony] Well, that will teach them to try and use the fact that they were here first and the word of mouth (or text of forum) as their only promotion. [/irony]

 

[WarmWoollySheep]

veho:
Would you trust a maxconsole review?


I'm not going to argue what is and isn't possible in this specific line of business as I'm not part of it, but here's what I do know: if there's a trustworthy site, that's the one I check everyday. I prefer useful information to lies.

 

[Wuschmaster]

I didn't even know Maxconsole...

 

[spokenrope]

I used to check MaxConsole daily until I discovered GBAtemp. Since that point, I don't think that I've gone back. GBAtemp is just a better place for information, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[jaxxster]

Haha taken from wiinewz

"MaxCuntzl reports that the CycloWiz has begun shipping to retailers. This leaves users scratching their heads since chips are being shipped and the developer website still is not open and no install pictures are available. Nice support, Team Cyclops!!!"

 

[Veho]

veho:
Would you trust a maxconsole review?

I wouldn't trust any single review. I would trust a bunch of good reviews of a product by several sites and magazines, if the appraisal (or critique) is unanimous, or at least the majority, but I don't trust single reviews. Be it a difference in personal taste, or personal opinion, or the main thing that makes one-sided reviews so bad, subjectivity, any one isolated review is never enough.

But that's beside the point.

 

[TheVirus]

GBATemp gets review samples, sometimes early, and their reviews aren't biased. If a website is popular and can prove it to companies, then they can get review samples without issue. Most companies, especially new ones, are fairly easy to get review samples from. They are usually willing to get as much press as possible, so I'm sure MC could have just asked both companies for a comparison review.